I Narrowed Down My Wish List

I don't think so. Hire in USA & Canada. Even the app. on the website ask which state you live in. I'd submit the app and find out for sure.

 

I noticed the same thing.

 

Look at Schneider, J.B. Hunt, Crete and Werner

Schneider should accept your experience. I was told by a recruiter that their required experience can be from the last 10 years. Assuming that's true, you shouldn't need to go out with a trainer there.

Idk how J.B.Hunt deals with non-recent experience, but most of the postings I've seen only require 3 or 6 months experience total, so they're not strict. I've also seen them post jobs where I live in Mississippi that run exclusively out West. But they always require relocation.

Idk where Crete stands on required experience, but they hire drivers east of the Mississippi while they also run a lot of freight West of it.

I throw Werner in there only because I know they're not too strict on experience requirements. They only make new drivers go out with a trainer for 3 weeks, so I doubt you would have to go out more than 2, if even that. They have accounts out West, but they're real uptight about putting you on one of them if your address is in the East. But that's gonna be the case with most companies, regardless of how many times you tell them you don't need to go home very often.

 

Dedicated runs within the US are illegal unless American drivers are doing it.
Not allowed to pick up freight in the USA and deliver it in the USA if you're a Canadian driver.
Better call about that. That company is running ads in the USA for drivers.
I'm going to mark that company off in my notebook.

 

I have pretty much all that at Swift working the Great Lakes Region.
Menasha, WI terminal. Great people there.
The area covers the upper middle of the country. Eastern ND/SD on the west, down to MO, east to the western tip of KY, OH and up to MI.

Regional pays more than OTR, so getting that 50+cpm should be easy.

There is some Chicago now and then, though.
Mostly Chicagoland area, not that much actually delivering in Chicago.

You would have to ask someone else about the passenger policy. Not from day one I'm pretty sure.
The cost is reasonable. You are paying for extra insurance.

 

Yeah, 'cabotage' it's the same in Canada regarding US drivers.

It may be that you can key in the states abbreviation and it will pull up in the pick list. I know with my companies e-logs, when we set up a driver and need to enter the province the pick list only brings up US states. However, if I type 'AB' Alberta will come up.

Could be the same software issue.

 

If you've been away for 3 years, no matter where you go will likely team you for a refresher to oil up those possibly rusty skills. Be ready for that. HazMat is good for 5 years these days (with mandatory refresher courses after 3). That IS in demand these days more than ever, so you may want to go renew it. However...lately it's been 2 - 5 months for background and approval.

 

Every endorsement other than HazMat is good for as long as you have a CDL.

80% of the US population lives east of essentially I-35. Only 20% of the US population lives out West. So it would be unlikely a trucking company that hires from anywhere is going to have 50% of their trips going west. I agree driving out West is much less stressful until you get to the big cities out West.

This list of your requirements is reasonable and there will be a few dozen companies and you will need to investigate them.

 

About Chicago, is that no pickups and deliveries or you don’t even want to drive through it?

The company I’m leased to has nice company trucks and they do van and flat/conestoga. I’m not sure how they would handle your driving gap. And I have no idea what their pay is for company drivers.

For reference, in the year and a half I’ve been with them I’ve done 2 deliveries in the Chicago area. And the last time I was in SoCal was a year ago.